Access to Fox Glacier washed out, leaving road's future in doubt

The future of the only road to Fox Glacier is under threat after a massive landslide once again wiped the road out, but local politicians are divided over whether the closure could affect tourism.

A massive slip mid-February destroyed 150 metres of the road, and badly damaged another 150m.

The access road is on Department of Conservation land, and had just reopened in December after $430,000 of repairs to earlier damage from the same active landslide, said operations manager Wayne Costello.

Another repair before that was understood to have cost more than $700,000.

The slip causing the issues is the largest active landslide in New Zealand right now, and if the road was repaired again there was no guarantee the next big rainfall would not repeat the damage, Mr Costello said.

So the future of the road will be reconsidered over the next few weeks.

"We may have to wait until conditions in the valley settle, which could be several years," Mr Costello said.

Visitors can still get to the glacier by helicopter, but access is cut off for people travelling by foot or in vehicles. Nearby State Highway 6 is unaffected.

Westland mayor Bruce Smith said if the access road was closed there would be no impact on tourism, as most visitors travelled to the glacier by helicopter or went to the nearby Franz Josef glacier instead.

"I would say there's no impact on tourism in South Westland ... most people don't even realise it is closed. And it'd be great to come up with something [else], but it's certainly not necessary," Mr Smith said.

The future of the access road to Fox Glacier is in question, after continued wash-outs. Photo: Google Images

The slip has been active for at least 10 years, but had "really picked up steam in the last year", pushing millions of cubic metres down Mills Creek, he said.

"Some of the boulders are as big as a house and they're just quietly coming down, and of course that dirt, and gravel and boulders move into the river, block the river, which in turn washes out the access road.

"So I get the strong feeling that mother nature's going to win this one."

Mr Smith said a walking track was being considered to give tourists a path of about 3 kilometres to reach the glacier on foot.